🌾 Dr. Liz Anna Kozik 🌾

Oh same

Some sort of fly climbing into witch hazel (I think?)

Some sort of fly standing on witch hazel with pollen on their butt

🚨🚨RED ALERT‼️🚨 🚨

BUGS ON FLOWERS,
POLLEN ON BUGS
WEST CHICAGOLAND

(It’s just some flies but STILL!!)

Trout Park a little further west

oh dang no one has posted the photos of the ones at mcdonald woods at the garden, i'll take my own photos on monday

a skunk cabbage bloom just poking up from the dirt

all-green points of emerging skunk cabbage

skunks at the garden are already blooming, but out at morton, they're barely up. it's wild what a difference ~35 miles makes

BIRD BIRD BIRD it's a kestrel, a lil bird with stripey brown/white wings, a gray cap, dark sideburns and tear-tracks, and a terracotta body

did the thing where I was like
"ugh whatever it's another redtail, I guess I'll photograph it so I have something to post on inat"

and it turned out to be a KESTREL HELLO

There's one in the neighborhood that will sometimes sit outside my window and HOOT HOOT HOOT for an hour straight and like

OKAY! I GET IT, I am officially, sufficiently Concerned and Alarmed

oh wow perfect sunset golden cast owl

look closely, there's two of them! a pine tree of some sort with two owls stacked

CW Owls!

Guess who I found this evening! They were hoot-hooting at each other and posed so nicely

Bubbly Creek - Wikipedia

“The creek derives its name from the gases bubbling out of the riverbed from the decomposition of blood and entrails dumped into the river in the early 20th century by the local meatpacking businesses”

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubbly_...

Hand holding a big camera looking over a half-frozen river

Istg I just heard a loon on Bubbly Creek, this is not what I grew up learning about

There is an absurd amount of red-breasted mergansers here

a guide for fruit shrubs and trees, mostly native, suggested by Xerces, including servicesberries, etrog, dogwood, crabapple/apple, almond, apricot, cherry, plum, currants, roses, raspberries, blackberries, elderberries, blueberries, and cranberries

Happy Tu BiShvat!! Shout out to @xercessociety.bsky.social for having a holiday guide for pollinators. More holidays should come with recommending planting lists.

xerces.org/blog/tu-bish...

a full moon in front of a pink and purple sunset, framed through an oak savanna

a full moon in front of a pink and purple sunset, framed through an oak savanna

Can you even handle this near-full moon prairie sunset?

a stunning and mildly perturbed coyote on a snowy trail in the prairie at sunset

a stunning and mildly perturbed coyote on a snowy trail in the prairie at sunset, looking to the side

I also met this perfect angelic baby, dressed perfectly for the prairie in winter. We both had places to be, but paused for a moment together on the trail to remark on the night.

Hello from another most-beautimus lady, queer icon of the creekside that I met yesterday

a screenshot of inaturalist obs by ME in january 2026, 212 observations and 73 species, mostly birds along rivers in western suburbs

a mrs kingfisher I saw today looking coquettishly over her shoulder

11:33pm January 31 2026, & I've made it to 212 new observations this month!!!

This month I have made 19 kingfisher observations! I made a goal to find them because I knew they would be a pain to photograph & take a while to hunt down. Now, over 21% of the Jan kingfisher obs in Chicagoland are MINE

a full moon in front of a pink and purple sunset, framed through an oak savanna

a full moon in front of a pink and purple sunset, framed through an oak savanna

Can you even handle this near-full moon prairie sunset?

A photo of a photo of a female kingfisher!!

Gamer voice lets goooooooo

a map with recent observations highlighted in pink, forming a backwards Y shape over the WSW Chicago suburbs

a wall of kingfisher photos

I am very pleased how neatly I've mapped the two branches of the Dupage River, aka the only places water isn't frozen.

Also I know you're wondering, yes I am up to 16 unique kingfisher observations

inaturalist screenshot showing 174 observations and 69 species

trying to keep my doomscrolling to a reasonable intake (instead of 24/7) so I've been trying to add observations every day this month. Somehow, I need 26 more observations, but no new species today and tomorrow

Solidago for the Mid-Atlantic Region Read Mt. Cuba's goldenrod report from the Trial Garden, which evaluated 70 species, cultivars, and ecotypes.

OH SHIT biggest hit of the year just dropped:

Mt Cuba released their Solidago (...and euthamia) report

mtcubacenter.org/trials/solid...

Have gained +2 kestrels to my travel kit, thank you to Hailey at Catbird Creations Co for these two precious angels

www.etsy.com/shop/Catbird...

www.instagram.com/catbird.crea...

True story: I won my first writing award in 4th grade for writing a story about the time a kestrel chased a sparrow into our house and somehow they both survived. I owe a blood debt to all kestrels for my creative work.

Have gained +2 kestrels to my travel kit, thank you to Hailey at Catbird Creations Co for these two precious angels

www.etsy.com/shop/Catbird...

www.instagram.com/catbird.crea...

snow softly falls on bare branches and a tree sparrow looking over their shoulder

DEAD ON STARE from an american tree sparrow in a winter bush

two excellent 2026 vibes from a tree sparrow in snow:

trying to be in the moment while also being consumed by endless rage

Here's how you add flower species to pollinator observations!

no you!

their little back legs flailing around as they squirm out is my favorite thing

Crap, I just looked up my records and unsurprisingly you're right. Then I'm just posting Bombus videos for no reason...

They are still great and I love them and they are doing a good job!

Here's how you add flower species to pollinator observations!